Another incumbent joins fight for lost F-35 contract

Alion Science & Technology Corp. has filed its own protest over a $141.1 million contract that went to another bidder.

Alion is the second incumbent to file a protest with the Government Accountability Office involving a contract won by Booz Allen Hamilton to support the F-35 Joint Program Office.

The contract was awarded by the Navy under its SeaPort-e program, and it supports the Navy, Air Force, Marines and several foreign nations that are buying the F-35 fighter made by Lockheed Martin.

The work previously was divided among three companies – Alion, Wyle and Engility – but has now been rolled into a single contract.

I reported on Wyle’s protest last week. With two of the three incumbents protesting, I imagine the third can’t be far behind. So far, I haven’t had any luck confirming that, but I'll write an update as soon as I know, one way or another. UPDATE: A source has told me that Engility is on Wyle's team so they won't be protesting.

Some background from my earlier blog:

The goal of the contract is provide the F-35 Joint Program Office with engineering knowledge based services, which includes systems engineering and technical support, support to the production and functional teams at the program office, and foreign military sales, according to procurement documents posted by Deltek.

While Booz Allen might not seem to be a natural for this, it is important to remember that it picked up a lot of these capabilities when it acquired ARINC’s defense business in 2012.